When you’re ambitious, you’ll constantly be trying to get promoted, increase your salary, make bigger profits. But how do you get to where you really want to be, at the very top of your profession? Where you’re not just successful, but you’ve ‘made it.’
The key is to realize your true potential. Here are three things you need to consider if you want to take control of your career and reach your true heights.
- Know yourself
If you want to take control of your career, you need to approach it like a project. You need to know all the variables, all the resources you can call on. And that means assessing your capabilities. What skills, experience, and knowledge do you have? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What about your passions? To be able to seize the right opportunities when they come along and adapt to an ever-changing environment, you need to be constantly assessing and recalibrating your success-preparedness.
But a self-assessment only gives you half the story. You will get powerful and maybe surprising intelligence by asking for feedback from your subordinates and people who are more senior in your organization. It’s like the 360-degree evaluation which can give you valuable insights that you may not see.
2. Know what you want
To be successful, you need to know what you want from your career. Do you want to run your own business, do you want to lead a multinational, or want to help people? Maybe social justice is your passion, or creativity, or teaching. Is your current job or industry a good fit for your strengths and your passions? Take a step back and think about your career values and really what you want to do.
3. Have a plan
You’ve done your research, and you know what you want. If you want to make it to the top, you need to excel, not just be good at your job. You need to be strategic, and you need a master plan. A master plan outlines your big vision and where you want to be in the long term. And you need short and medium-term plans that will lead you to your master goal.
A good career plan that is supercharged for success will keep your long-term vision front and center. It will be flexible; it will take your current skills into account and anticipate future skill needs.
Good strategic plans anticipate likely obstacles and are flexible enough to accommodate or avoid them. You should be able to plot your desired trajectory and build in actions and strategies to keep you focused on achieving your goal.
A great example is from a young man I coached for interviewing for a huge promotion which was unheard of for his age and the position. But his career strategy was genius; he said he wanted to get a promotion every two years, so the first year he learned everything he could about his current role, with the second position learning everything he could about the next position he wanted. He got every role he desired, even the one I helped him navigate through.
Moral of the story: by knowing who you are and really what you want, you can realize your true potential and achieve whatever you want. Following the steps I outlined will keep you focused and on track – success is yours for the taking!
If you’re needing help with moving into leadership or being more effective in your role, reach out to learn how we can help support you on this journey. You don’t have to do it alone…